Tag: Hebrews

2nd Before Advent: One for the Home Crowd

St Peter’s – 2nd Sunday before Advent
17/11/24

Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 12:41-13:1-13

Hello to the friends watching online!

I grew up in Cochrane and come from one of the founding families of St Peter’s. I graduated from Cochrane High way too long ago. In 2007 I moved to London, England for some travel, education and different nursing experiences. I began to attend a church (Holy Trinity Brompton) where the Alpha Course started as a way to meet people. While there I got very involved in many church groups including volunteering as a hospital chaplain. This led me, over a couple of years and much surprise, to pursue becoming a Priest in the Church of England.

10 years ago I put aside my nursing career (I trained at the U of A and worked at the Foothills & Tom Baker and then in Scotland & London) after being selected for training. I went to Oxford University to study for 2 years (most fun I have had as an adult) and was ordained as a deacon in 2016 and then as a Priest in 2017. In the CofE you serve a curacy which is basically on-the-job training/apprenticeship for 3-4 years; mine finished at the end of 2020. During my curacy I became a volunteer police chaplain with Thames Valley Police.

I then moved to my first parish where I was in charge of 6 small village churches to the west of London for a 3-year fixed-term. Last year I began to look for another job thinking that I would like another short-term role within reach of my beloved police. Not long into the search I found an ad in the CofE weekly newspaper for the Lead Chaplain of Gatwick Airport (the 2nd largest airport in the UK). I thought this was a job for a crazy person but was equally intrigued! So I applied, was successful and have just completed my first year.

Airport Chaplaincy is fairly niche but like all chaplaincies it is a ministry of presence. You have to be seen to be believed and you never know what is going to happen next! I spend my days looking after the two airport chapels and my volunteer team of Buddhists, Christians & Muslims, walking the terminals looking for passengers and staff who look like they might need some help. I get involved in emergency response situations and work alongside airport security, the police, the Airport Fire Service, passenger operations team & airline staff both as a colleague but also chaplain for personal or team matters. I have a high level of security clearance and can stick my nose in pretty much anywhere. This is an ideal role for me! I also look after two small churches on the edge of the airport.

I am so delighted/slightly lamenting to have flown all the way from London having volunteered to preach today before I checked the readings! We have some heavy going this morning. I tried to avoid doing this to my own two parishes by taking holidays now. Yet here we all are about to wrestle with some of the more challenging/mysterious/confusing parts of the Bible.

To ease us in, I am going to start with a fictitious yet amusing story from a favourite novel of mine.

A typesetter in a Rotterdam suburb had been through a personal crisis. Several years earlier he had been recruited by Jehovah’s Witnesses; but they had thrown him out when he discovered, and questioned rather too loudly, the fact that the congregation had predicted the return of Jesus on no less than fourteen occasions between 1799 and 1980 – and sensationally managed to get it wrong all fourteen times.

Upon which, the typesetter had joined the Pentecostal Church. He liked their teaching about the Last Judgement; he could embrace the idea of God’s final victory over evil, the return of Jesus (without actually naming a date) and how most of the people from the typesetter’s childhood, including his own father, would burn in hell. But this new congregation had sent him packing too after a whole month’s collection had gone astray while in the care of the typesetter.

The now bitter typesetter started the layout for that day’s job, which ironically happened to consist of printing two thousand bibles for an order from Sweden. This troubled the typesetter because as far as he knew, his father still lived there after having abandoned his family when the typesetter was six years old.

With tears in his eyes, the typesetter set the text of chapter upon chapter. When he came to the very last chapter – the Book of Revelation – he just lost it. How could Jesus ever want to come back to Earth? Here where Evil had once and for all conquered Good, so what was the point of anything? And the Bible…It was just a joke!

So it came about that the typesetter with shattered nerves made a little addition to the very last verse in the very last chapter in the Swedish bible. The typesetter didn’t remember much of his father’s tongue, but he could at least recall a nursery rhyme that was well suited in the context. Thus the bible’s last two verses plus the typesetter’s extra verse were printed as:

20. He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am
coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.
22. And they all lived happily ever after.

What do you make of happily ever after? It is how many fairy tales, movies, books, etc conclude. Everything comes good in the end; the baddies are punished, the goodies are rewarded, the couple reunites and everything is put right. Hallmark Christmas movie season is upon us! This formula is simple, predictable, convenient, comforting and shallow. This is why we like them – comfort, easy with little thinking required.

Upon return to the rest of life we are confronted with the endings that are much more complicated, messy, misunderstood and difficult. No wonder we long for the happily ever after.

The set readings before Advent (a mere 2 weeks away) focus on the return of Jesus. We are about to celebrate the first coming which is central and important to the Christian faith. Advent should remind us there is more to the parties and presents and only seeing Jesus as the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. The reminder is that Jesus has come, has gone after the resurrection and He will be coming again. His next and final return will be both an ending and a new beginning.

The passage in Mark’s Gospel occurs in the middle of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus and the disciples have entered Jerusalem, think donkeys and palm branches. Jesus has been preaching in the Temple; the preceding two chapters of Mark provide this teaching. Jesus is now focusing on the end of the age and is alerting the disciples to the troubles ahead.

As they are leaving the Temple, Jesus sits down and watches people. Both rich and poor put their offerings in the collection plate. We could assume that the disciples’ attention was on the people with large amounts of money going in the treasury. However, Jesus’ attention is on the poor widow who throws in her two very small copper coins.

Jesus calls the disciples to attention and points out the sacrifice she has made; her two pennies were worth more than what everyone else gave. Some bible commentaries have questioned whether this woman’s trip to the Temple was her last act before she died. This may be what Jesus sees in her; impending death. She is preparing to die by giving away all she has. The poor widow gave her very last to the Temple, to God. What an ending.

The disciples’ response? What massive stones and magnificent buildings! How about those Flames? Their diversion tactics are not brilliant and neither are ours. What struck me is that I began to ask myself about my massive stones and magnificent buildings.

What are your massive stones? Your house? Bank accounts? Career? Job? Family? Connections? Opinions? Politics? Pension? Leaving something for the kids? We all have them. These are things that can get in the way of our relationships with God.

Maybe it was easier for the disciples to look at the stones and magnificent buildings than consider the poor widow and her two cents or Jesus’ tough teachings they had heard.

Jesus is coming to throw down the big stones. However wonderful, lovely and whatever security (real & imagined) our stones provide – will come down. What are we storing up that will last? What will we have to show Jesus when he returns?

Jesus then leads the disciples for a walk up the Mount of Olives across from the Temple. If you have had the privilege of visiting Jerusalem you will know the view that I am talking about. I imagine them sitting up high enough to overlook the Temple and all of Jerusalem. He changes their perspective to see beyond the rocks and buildings to the whole city. How is your view this morning?

The disciples have serious questions and rightly so. When? What are the signs? They do not seem to fully grasp the whole view but they don’t want to miss it either. No time frame makes this difficult and Jesus was still sitting next to them. I choose to believe that Jesus does not want them to get overly fixated on either the time [whether it is long or short] or the events themselves. There is a kindness in this. How do we measure time or response to a situation when there is nothing to measure? At least not yet.

Working at Gatwick Airport over this past year I have learned a huge amount about airport security, the aggravation of unattended bags, emergency situations, counter terrorism measures and what to look out for. None of us staff know when something is going to happen until it happens. But when things do happen we have to be ready and jump into action. There are plans and practices, policy and procedure.

Jesus will return. It will happen. No one knows when. Rumours of wars, earthquakes, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. A quick look at the news and a flip through some history books and we can identify almost all of these events at any time in the last many hundreds of years. Immediately after the crucifixion and resurrection everyone thought that Jesus was coming back again very soon, like any day.

There are people now who spend a lot of time and energy trying to work out the date when Jesus will come again. I would suggest that this is not what we should be spending time and energy on. It will happen. We should be ready for when Jesus does return. Back to massive stones…

It is not something we would want to rush into coming; the return of Jesus for some will not mean a happy ending. There are a few ways to have a happier ever after when the stones come down. The Hebrews’ passage urges appreciation for what has been done for us and the great hope to which it leads. What was done for us: There is another priest (Jesus) who offered for all time the one sacrifice for sin. He sat down at the right hand of God and made his enemies a footstool.

There is a new way and a new hope that comes through the curtain; the body and blood of Christ. This new way comes with hardships and is more daunting than we might want yet we have been warned and are to be watchful. Both the Old and New Testament are full of wisdom on what to focus on:

Daniel: The wise and those who lead people to righteousness will shine like stars in the heavens. Gain wisdom; not worldly, social media meme wisdom but the wisdom of God. Read, pray, watch and listen: these are the disciplines of Advent.

Be aware of righteousness that is self-righteousness dressed as arrogance and used as a weapon to abuse and manipulate.

Hebrews: We have been forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus and we can have confidence in this. We can draw near to God in full assurance of faith. This is where real life and true love are found. We need to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. The world needs more doers of good deeds!

Mark: Be aware of being deceived by false prophets, false Jesus’ claiming to be Him. Be on your guard. Be wise and prepare to be challenged. Jesus came to show us a new way of loving, redemption and salvation.

The Gospel must be preached to all nations. Wait – what?! Before we get all hot and bothered about the wars and earthquakes; how are we doing with the Gospel? Any evidence of it to the people, the community and the world around us? This will be the happily-ever-after ending. The only one. The Gospel of Jesus, of love and justice, joy and wisdom, grace and righteousness preached to all nations.

And finally from Psalm 16: whatever is coming and whenever it does God is our help, our refuge; apart from him you have no good thing, I have no good thing. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. And they all lived happily ever after.

Passiontide: Knowing and Seeing

17/3/24
Lent 5

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

O God, we give you thanks because,
in the carnation of the Word,
a new light has dawned upon the world,
that all the nations and peoples may be brought out of darkness to see the radiance of your glory.

How has Lent been treating you? Has it been a time of learning new things about yourself and God? At this point in Lent, I think that many people get tempted to give up on the whole thing. Others may think it does not make any difference so carry on as normal.

Whichever way we are marking it (or not) this season of Lent is moving on rapidly. If we take a brief look back at the Gospel readings of the last few Sundays we can see how far we have come.

We began on Ash Wednesday with Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery and the offer to those without sin to cast the first stone. Then Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness immediately after his baptism. The third Sunday saw Jesus beginning to teach his disciples that he was to undergo great suffering, be killed and rise again in three days. This was followed by Jesus’ rant in the temple and the turning over of tables. We lightened up a bit last week for Mothering Sunday!

This Sunday, the fifth Sunday, begins the final push towards Easter. The churchy name is Passiontide and it runs these next two weeks until Easter Sunday. There is a turning in the Gospel reading this morning as Jesus narrows down the time frame with ‘the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified’. In the previous Gospel readings there has been no time specified. This threw the disciples and the Jewish authorities into confusion over when things were to happen.

In these last hours there are two serious questions to be considered in the prophecy of Jeremiah and in the Gospel of John. The first question from Jeremiah is: Do you know God?

Jeremiah is speaking to a group of broken, disillusioned people who are far from home and suffering. This happened in the sixth century when the Israelites (God’s chosen people) had been run out of Judah and Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. Jeremiah had faithfully and persistently spoken to the people and they would not listen.

The exile largely resulted from the Israelites disobedience to God. This in turn made God angry and out they went. A fair follow up question is why would I want to know a God like that?

Knowing God is a choice that each of us have to make and something that needs to be worked out. Like any relationship, it does not just happen. Nor can it be done on our behalf by another person. Sadly many people disregard God completely when He does not act in the way they/we think He should.

God requires very little from those who choose not to follow or believe in Him. There are of course consequences. The ultimate consequence is separation from God when this life is over. This is what Jesus came to save us from.

Life is difficult for many people, too many people. Hardship, war, famine, financial and relationship troubles, health issues, poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of love. Name your own difficulty. It is hard to comprehend that change or improvement will come.

Jeremiah was telling the exiled Israelites that better times were coming; the Lord will make a new covenant with them. God will put his law within them and they will be his people. The new covenant was needed because the old had been broken. The previous law had been written on stone tablets when Moses was on the mountain with God as written in the book of Exodus.

Rather than on stone tablets, the new law would be written in people’s hearts. They would not be compelled to follow that law; but would desire to follow the law. The Israelites were to become a community that knows God intimately and shared the knowledge of him together. This leads to them becoming a faithful community and the Lord will put the former sins behind them. This is the God that I want to know. This is the kind of community I want to be a part of. We have to desire it and want to stay around long enough to see it through.


The second question is: Do you want to see Jesus? The Greeks that appeared at the festival asked to see Jesus; there is no indication of why. Are they curious about his message and his parables? Are they chasing spectacle and hoping to see Jesus walk on water or heal a blind man? Maybe they are sceptics or troublemakers, looking to pick a fight. There is no way to know. All we can do is guess. I believe that one day everyone will meet him face to face.

Do you want to see Jesus?

If yes, which Jesus do we wish to see? The teacher? The healer? The peacemaker? The troublemaker? Why are we interested? Or if we are not asking and seeking, then the question shifts, and we have to ask it differently: why do I not want to see Jesus? What has been lost?

Many people may not want his presence, his guidance, his example or his companionship but still want things from him. Like safety, health, wealth, immunity from suffering or a life of ease. If we want to see Jesus then we have to see it all. The death, the suffering, the difficult teaching, the call to die to ourselves, to love Him first and everything else second. Those who serve him must follow him.

My heart for Jesus expands and constricts; my desire to see him waxes and wanes, and my motives for seeking him grow purer and coarser by turns.
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” On its face, it is such a simple request, but it cuts to the heart of so many kinds of spiritual growth, stagnation, and defeat. If we, like the Greek Gentiles, want to see Jesus, the place to look is to the cross. Jesus was and is many things: teacher, healer, companion, and Lord, and it is essential that we experience him in all of these ways.

The centre, the heart of who he is, is revealed at the cross. The cross makes true sight possible. Jesus is the one who draws and gathers all people to himself. He is the one who allows himself to be lifted up, so that what is unclear or overwhelming or frightening becomes visible. Jesus wishes to see us far more urgently than we will ever wish to see him. This is not a rebuke. We love because he loves first. We love because the cross draws us towards love; its power is as compelling as it is mysterious.

The cross pulls us towards God and towards each other. Whether or not I want to see Jesus, here he is, drawing me. Whether or not you want to see Jesus too.
In the next two weeks of Passiontide, we are drawn into the drama of the final days of Jesus’ life. We should be drawn to Him; we should want to be drawn to Him. We can be drawn in by reading the accounts of what happened and paying attention to the details and praying. The Hebrews reading this morning tells us that Jesus prayed. Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears, the messy, snotty kind. No stiff upper lip here. Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for all who listen and follow him. This is worth saying a few prayers for and some messy crying.

The waiting of Lent is speeding up; the hour is coming. Those who love their life will lose it. Fruit is born through death. This waiting will come to an end on the cross when Jesus is lifted up. The time is coming when we will see him face to face. Better days are coming to those who follow. Let’s be ready.

Trinity 9: Run the Race

14/8/22
Proper 15

Jeremiah 23:23-29
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

I have said a few times in my last few sermons that we are in a season of teaching as we hear again the parables and stories of Jesus’ life and ministry.
This was all well and good with me until I read this week’s readings. All this talk of fire, hammers, torture, unfulfilled promises, division, superficiality, uncertainty! It’s August, it’s supposed to be summertime and living is easy!

Fortunately I came across a story about the great composer Beethoven and a trick he used to sometimes play on polite salon audiences that weren’t really interested in serious music. Beethoven would perform one of his pieces on the piano, usually a slow movement which would be so gentle and beautiful that everyone would be lulled into thinking that the world was a soft, cosy place, where the audience would relax into semi-slumber and think beautiful thoughts.

Then, just as the final notes were dying away, Beethoven would bring his whole forearm down with a crash across the keyboard and laugh at the shock he gave to the assembled company. I think that we have something of the shock of the crash in the readings this morning.

“Many great heroes of the faith,” writes the author of Hebrews, died gruesome deaths, but “did not receive what was promised.” “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I came to bring division!” Jesus cries as he makes his way towards Jerusalem and death.

Maybe we need a reminder in this summer season that a real Christian faith is not one that is soft or easy, without cost. Maybe a reminder that peace comes with a price and how easily we can misread the signs.

There are a few phrases that I want to highlight from the readings this week and what they might have to say to us:

Run with perseverance the race that is set before us

Hebrews chapter eleven is often called the “Faith Hall of Fame,” since it highlights the remarkable lives and achievements of those who lived “by faith” in the Old Testament. Indeed, the achievements of these faith-filled men and women are awe-inspiring.

During their lifetimes, they “administered justice,” “shut the mouths of lions,” “quenched raging fire,” “won strength out of weakness,” and “received their dead by resurrection.” How much more impressive can you get? Yet maybe they feel distant, the persecution they faced as unrealistic to us now and their actions are ancient history; not practical to today. The lions we face are likely to be metaphorical and the foreign armies are over there, somewhere.

There are other things on the list, administration of justice and obtaining promises. If you caught any news this week, maybe you saw 7 year old Tony Hudgell at Downing Street to receive his Shining Light award. Tony was abused by his birth parents, resulting in the amputation of both his legs as an infant. His adoptive parents have fought for Tony’s Law to increase the length of sentences on those who abuse children. They fought for justice and obtained promises with perseverance and love for Tony. Heroic.

What is the race set before us? Whatever it is – physical, social, psychological or spiritual, look to Jesus. The author and perfecter of our faith. We do not have to have a photo finish, Jesus will meet us where we are.

“Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised.”

The “Hall of Fame” has a dark side to triumph and victory. Many of God’s faithful were tortured, flogged, mocked, and stoned to death. Many went about “destitute, persecuted, and tormented.”

Many spent their lives wandering in deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground. And all of them — all of them – died without receiving what was promised to them.

What does this mean? Well, among other things, it means that God’s timing doesn’t always align with ours. It means that crises of absurdity, meaninglessness, pain, and horror are part and parcel of human existence, regardless of whether we profess faith in God or not.

It means that we Christians need to be clear and honest about the faith we profess. Yes, there is joy in the Christian life. Yes, there is beauty. Yes, there is the promise of love, wholeness, healing, and grace. But the life of faith is also hard and risky. The life of faith does not ever guarantee us health, wealth, prosperity, or safety. To suggest otherwise is to lie, and to make a mockery of the Gospel.

Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? NO, I tell you, but rather division!’

The Gospel of Luke begins with the proclamation that Jesus will “guide our feet into the way of peace.” At Jesus’s birth, an angelic choir sings “Peace on earth!” On numerous occasions during his ministry, Jesus offers men and women words of peace: “Go in peace and sin no more.” “Peace I leave with you.” “My peace I give you.” “I have told you these things, so that in me you might have peace.”

Many of us, following Jesus’s example, “share the peace” with each other every Sunday morning: “The peace of the Lord be always with you.” “And also with you.” We assume — the vast majority of us, anyway — that ours is a religion of peace. Of peace-making, peace-loving, and peacekeeping.

It’s not Jesus’s desire or purpose to set fathers against sons or mothers against daughters. It’s certainly not his will that we stir up conflict for conflict’s sake or use his words to justify violence or war. Yet his words are a necessary reminder that the peace Jesus offers us is not the fake peace of denial, dishonesty, and harmful accommodation.

His is a kind of deep, life-changing peace that doesn’t hesitate to break in order to mend and cut in order to heal. Jesus will name realities we don’t want named.
He will expose the lies we tell ourselves out of cowardice, laziness, or stubbornness. He will disrupt all dynamics in our relationships with ourselves and with each other that keep us from wholeness and holiness.
This is not because Jesus wants us to suffer. It’s because he knows that real peace is worth fighting for.

In the gospel Jesus forced choices from just about everyone he met during his years of ministry. No one met him without feeling compelled to change. He consistently brought people to the point of crisis, tension, movement, or transformation. He consistently led people to decisions their families and communities didn’t understand. And he still does. When Jesus speaks of divisions in households, he is talking about the division that his message will bring. Families will split up over it, the OT prophets spoke about this happening too.

Jesus did come to bring peace and wants everyone to put their faith in him. The reminder is that this is not easy or to be undertaken lightly. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who are cheering us on so we can run with perseverance. We have been set examples in the heroes of the faith and our modern heroes like the Hudgell family.

Like Beethoven’s arm coming down on the keyboard and shocking his polite audience, let’s let the words of the readings this morning grab our attention again.

Proper 23: The Grace of Change

From Orthodox Christianity – https://orthochristian.com/117909.html

Hebrews 4:12-end
Mark 10:17-31
10/10/21
Trinity 19/Proper 23

Autumn has always been my favourite season of the year; I love the smells, the colours, the change of light and mood. I also love the change that autumn brings to life more widely as activities and programs start again, kids back at school.

Our bible readings this morning remind us that God is a God of change. In Hebrews, the word of God is living and active, it is meant to bring change to our lives, sharply and piercingly. It will expose and judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. We are to turn away from ourselves and to the throne of God to find grace to help us in our time of need. Mark’s Gospel tells the story of the young man who comes to Jesus looking for change too. His apparent earnestness, maybe an expectation of an easy answer is dissolved when he does not receive what he wanted. He leaves Jesus grieved and unchanged (as far as we know).

How many of you are good with change? Some of you might embrace it with enthusiasm while others might be slower to embrace. In my previous life as a nurse, you learned early that things change quickly, and you need to be able to respond fast.

Not all change is bad or negative either. Sometimes change is actually a very good thing; we may not see it at the time though. I also find that those things I want changed; never seem to change. And the things that I don’t want to change; always do! Over the last 19 months, we have all had to face so much change. Much of it has been unwelcome and unwanted; although some changes have been seen as positive and should continue.

What change was the young man seeking? He starts in the right place, at the feet of Jesus. He has all the material goods and does all the right stuff; but maybe having the stuff and doing the right stuff has made life boring for this young man. He wants more of something. Jesus looked at him and loved him. I love these little verses that get tucked in – we almost always overlook them. Jesus loved him. He loves you.

Now Jesus could have gone a few ways with this young man’s question of how to have eternal life. It would have been easy for Jesus to secure a new convert. ‘Great!’ Jesus could have said ‘come on! You already follow the commandments, you’re already calling me ‘good’ so you must know who I am because only God is good. You’re in!’

Jesus could have also worked him in more slowly, easing the young man into the values of God’s kingdom. ‘How about you writing a small cheque to charity this year? Nothing scary – just a token?’

However Jesus is not interested in convenience or comfort. That is what I (maybe we) are concerned about. Remember that Jesus loved him and because he loved him and said the truthful thing, the hard and unwanted thing he knew would cause the young man’s excitement to disappear on the spot. “Sell what you own, give to the poor and follow me.’

This was not what the young man wanted to hear and so he goes away shocked and grieving. This was not the change he was looking for! He was probably shocked because he considered his wealth an entitlement; symbol of worldly accomplishment and of God’s favour. This young man had not found true happiness despite the trappings of life. He seems to be after life in its fullness as we all are. Maybe he thought that he could buy his way to eternal life by observing a special commandment.

Jesus welcomes his desire but also knows his weakness, his attachment to possessions and this is probably why he invites him to give it all to the poor so that his treasure and his heart will be in heaven and not on earth. But the young man decides (as far as we know) to hang on to his wealth which will never bring him happiness or eternal life.

What about the church? The Church has faced huge changes in the last year which for an organization that is notoriously slow and often resistant to change has been a challenge. We are working on changing some of the structures in the Hambleden Valley Group at this time, we need your prayers and support to do this. The Rural Review has been an opportunity to look at ourselves with honesty and integrity; we cannot stay the same.

The Friends of the Fawley Church want to make changes to this building that need support and prayers too. It will take courage and fortitude to do this.
If we only look at the bank account or the church building – it will never work. We need to look at something bigger, beyond us; that being God of course! In any and all instances we need to approach the throne of grace and seek God’s mercy and help.

Then there are largely two options as seen in the examples of the young man and Peter and the disciples. If we do not hear what we want or receive the change we seek, we can walk away. We can keep what we have until we lose it.
The other example is that of Peter. He lays it out for Jesus, ‘look at what we gave up to follow you!’ It was not lost on Jesus what had been given up in order to follow him and all will be made good according to him.

If, however, we stay the course.

In this season of change – God is offering us new opportunities. Following Jesus will challenge us to lifetimes of change where we are invited to encounter God in new ways apart from tradition, memory and resting on history.

Like the young man, we might want more from God but may not want to give up what God wants us to. We might choose to hang on to the familiar – even if it doesn’t bring us happiness or eternal life because it is comfortable.
Are we willing to risk being disappointed with the answer God gives – but choose his way regardless?

My prayer is that in this coming season of change we will be ready for whatever may come, that we will hold fast to the promises of God and know we can approach the throne of grace when help is needed.